King Harald V of Norway, Europe’s oldest monarch, has d!ed at the age of 89, after 35 years on the throne.
He died on Friday, August 28, just after 6:35am, the Royal House of Norway announced on its website. Harald is succeeded as monarch by his son Haakon.
He leaves his wife of 57 years, Queen Sonja, two children, and five grandchildren. His granddaughter Ingrid Alexandra now becomes heir to the Norwegian throne.
Harald was Europe’s oldest monarch. The popular king modernized the royal house but refused to follow in the footsteps of other aging monarchs who have abdicated in recent times. His son now automatically becomes King Haakon VIII.
Harald was crowned king after his British-born father, King Olav V, died in January 1991, and reigned during an oil-and-gas-driven economic boom in his country.
Harald was born in 1937 in Asker, near Oslo, becoming the first Norwegian prince to be born in the country since King Olav IV in 1370. In the following centuries, Norway didn’t have a king of its own until Harald’s grandfather, Haakon VII, was elected king following the 1905 dissolution of the union between Sweden and Norway.
Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said, “a whole nation is in mourning” after Harald’s death, with the people of Norway “left with a deep sense of gratitude for a long life in the service of Norway.” The government declared a national period of mourning, as crowds gathered outside the royal palace in Oslo to pay their respects.
Tributes rolled in from across Europe following the announcement, from other royal houses in Sweden, Denmark and the United Kingdom, to political leaders of various nations.
Britain’s King Charles said his family was mourning a “friend whose kindness, compassion and deep sense of duty echoed from across the sea and across the decades,” while Denmark’s King Frederik and Queen Mary remembered Harald as a “fine man with a twinkle in his eye and a big heart.”
Harald’s health had deteriorated significantly in recent days after he was admitted to hospital with “fluid accumulation in the body,” due to a blood disorder. He later developed an infection.